19 August 2008

Cadfael is, of course, a Benedictine monk. Benedictine monks follow the Rule written by Saint Benedict, who lived in Italy in the late 5th/early 6th centuries. After living as a hermit for three years, he was asked to become the leader of a group of monks. The monks found his leadership and the way of life he tried to inculcate more demanding than they wished and they tried to poison him. He survived the attempts on his life and withdrew from the monastery, founding new monasteries for followers who still wished to attach themselves to him. To guide them in following a monastic life he wrote his Rule, which has been the basis for Western monasticism ever since. The picture on the left showing Saint Benedict presenting the Rule to monks is from an 1129 manuscript (i.e., a manuscript contemporary with the setting of the Cadfael stories), now in the British Museum. (public domain picture taken from The Catholic Encyclopedia)